Nokia Sues Apple for Patent Infringement in Germany and the U.S. Following Licensing Disagreement [Updated]

Nokia today announced that it has filed several complaints against Apple in Germany and the United States, accusing the Cupertino company of infringing on Nokia patents.

Nokia's lawsuit stems from a disagreement between Apple and Nokia over licensing fees for Nokia technology. Apple this morning filed an antitrust lawsuit against several patent assertion entities that it claims are attempting to collect excessive fees for Nokia patents through lawsuits and royalty demands.

nokialogo
According to Apple, Nokia's failing cellphone business has prompted Nokia to transfer patents to patent assertion entities to get out of FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory) licensing deals it established for essential patents, allowing the company to collect higher royalties. From Apple's complaint:

With its cell phone business dying, Nokia began to seek out willing conspirators and to commence its illegal patent transfer scheme in full force; that scheme has continued in full effect to the present. The driving force behind Nokia's strategy was to diffuse its patent portfolio and place it in the hands of PAEs. Acacia and Conversant were its chief conspirators.

Nokia's own patent infringement complaint against Apple claims that Apple has declined to establish licensing deals for Nokia technology that is used in Apple products.

Ilkka Rahnasto, head of Patent Business at Nokia, said: "Through our sustained investment in research and development, Nokia has created or contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in today's mobile devices, including Apple products. After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights."

Nokia has filed lawsuits in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich in Germany. The lawsuits cover 32 patents that cover technologies including display, user interface, software, antenna, chipsets, and video coding. Nokia says additional actions are to come.

Update: Nokia today filed additional patent lawsuits against Apple in Asia, Europe, and the United States. As of today, Nokia has filed 40 patent suits in 11 countries.

Update 2: Apple is now suing Nokia itself as the legal battle continues to escalate. Apple has added Nokia Corporation, Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy, and Nokia Technologies Oy to the list of defendants in its aforementioned antitrust case against several patent assertion entities that have sued Apple over Nokia patents.

Top Rated Comments

Stella Avatar
91 months ago
Nokia have a right to protect its patents, just like Apple has a right.

The courts will decide who is right.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jk76 Avatar
91 months ago
I'll be waiting breathlessly for the final verdict in July, 2032, when the term "mobile phone" will seem quaint or archaic.
I might be a bit too dry, but seriously...

Nokia is a company in networking business, in control of significant portions of patent pools and R&D of Nokia (eh), Siemens, Motorola and Alcatel-Lucent in cellular networks. Without the research they put in the subject, there would be much less of anything those iPhones could use to communicate. They are one of the behemoths of telecom technologies in the background, along with Ericsson and Huawei. These companies are not a joke; they are building blocks of our current society. Sure, Apple would want to be let to take advantage of their research for free.

I have been professionally involved with most of these companies over my career. I have also been involved with several central companies without which Macs wouldn't be possible - and also defence companies making existence of Western democracies a real thing. The amount of interest these companies put on research is central to our modern societies, and it costs real money. Nonetheless, only expectation on this forum is some sort of a poop-throwing festivity. Amount of fixation on a single company, in good or bad, on this forum is absurd.

Let's put it straight: no company has a chance to survive purely on its own. This especially applies to markets such as telecommunications and microelectronics. Apple is reliant on hundreds of companies to make a single working product on these markets. Nokia is really one of those companies that has put - even conservatively speaking - tens of billions on R&D which has benefited Apple. What's the moral high ground choosing to unquestionably defend Apple on this case?
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tooltalk Avatar
91 months ago
Third parties have commented ('http://www.fosspatents.com/2015/05/privateering-lets-name-and-shame.html') on the deplorable practices taken by Nokia and it's PAEs before, this isn't exactly a new scenario. It sounds like Apple just decided that enough is enough; considering the lawsuit they filed is about antitrust allegations, they're obviously trying to bust the whole system open.
This is the exact tactic Apple had tried to use against Android with their Rockstar Consortium -- until Google successfully convinced the court that Apple was orchestrating it behind the curtain and moved the case from TX to CA.

Why is it ok when Apple does it, but "deplorable" when someone else does it?
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
StayPuft Avatar
91 months ago
Oh boy, more lawsuits.

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
apolloa Avatar
91 months ago
Waiting for the 'PATENT TROLL' posts from the utterly clueless followers, just like the Ericsson case...
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nt5672 Avatar
91 months ago
This will probably be Cook's next excuse for no Mac upgrades and innovations. They probably have the only 2 engineers that can work on Mac's working on this lawsuit.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

apple card 1

Apple Ending Apple Card Partnership With Goldman Sachs

Tuesday November 28, 2023 3:09 pm PST by
Apple is ending its credit card partnership with Goldman Sachs, according to The Wall Street Journal. Apple plans to stop working with Goldman Sachs in the next 12 to 15 months, and it is not yet clear if Apple has established a new partnership for the Apple Card. Apple and Goldman Sachs will dissolve their entire consumer partnership, including the Apple Card and the Apple Savings account....
iOS 17

Everything New in iOS 17.2 Beta 4

Tuesday November 28, 2023 12:18 pm PST by
Apple is wrapping up development on iOS 17.2, with the update expected to come out in December. While we're getting to the end of the beta testing period, Apple is still tweaking features and adding new functionality. We've rounded up everything new in the fourth beta of iOS 17.2. Default Notification Sound Under Sounds & Haptics, there's a new "Default Alerts" section that allows you to ...
ios 17 namedrop

Police Departments and News Sites Spreading Misinformation About How iOS 17 NameDrop Feature Works

Monday November 27, 2023 5:11 pm PST by
Apple with iOS 17.1 and watchOS 10.1 introduced a new NameDrop feature that is designed to allow users to place Apple devices near one another to quickly exchange contact information. Sharing contact information is done with explicit user permission, but some news organizations and police departments have been spreading misinformation about how NameDrop functions. As noted by The Washington...
All New CarPlay Five New Features Article 2

What to Expect From All-New CarPlay, Still Listed as Coming 'Late 2023'

Tuesday November 28, 2023 7:44 am PST by
At WWDC in June 2022, Apple previewed the next generation of CarPlay, promising deeper integration with vehicle functions like A/C and FM radio, support for multiple displays across the dashboard, increased personalization, and more. Apple's website still says the first vehicles with support for the next-generation CarPlay experience will be announced in "late 2023," but it has not shared...
iOS 17

iOS 17.1.2 Update for iPhone Likely to Be Released This Week

Monday November 27, 2023 8:24 am PST by
Apple will likely release iOS 17.1.2 this week, based on mounting evidence of the software in our website's analytics logs in recent days. As a minor update, iOS 17.1.2 should be focused on bug fixes, but it's unclear exactly which issues might be addressed. Some users have continued to experience Wi-Fi issues on iOS 17.1.1, so perhaps iOS 17.1.2 will include the same fix for Wi-Fi...
Apple 5G Modem Feature Triad

Apple to Discontinue Custom 5G Modem Development, Claim Reports

Wednesday November 29, 2023 4:19 am PST by
Apple is discontinuing in-house modem development after several unsuccessful attempts to perfect its own custom 5G modem chip, according to unconfirmed reports coming out of Asia. According to the operator of news aggregator account "yeux1122" on the Naver blog, supply chain sources related to Apple's 5G modem departments claim that the company's attempts to develop its own modem have...
Apple Logo

Apple Discontinued These 5 Products This Year

Monday November 27, 2023 7:03 am PST by
As the end of 2023 nears, now is a good opportunity to look back at some of the devices and accessories that Apple discontinued throughout the year. Apple products discontinued in 2023 include the iPhone 13 mini, 13-inch MacBook Pro, MagSafe Battery Pack, MagSafe Duo Charger, and leather accessories. Also check out our lists of Apple products discontinued in 2022 and 2021. iPhone Mini ...
Google Drive

Some Google Drive Users' Files Have Mysteriously Vanished

Tuesday November 28, 2023 3:55 am PST by
Google Drive users have been warned not to disconnect their account within the Google Drive for desktop app, after a spate of reports of files going missing from the cloud service. Alarm bells began ringing last week on Google's community support site when some users reported files mysteriously disappearing from Google Drive, with some posters claiming six or more months of data had...